A coalition of regional partners, including the Secretariat of the Pacific Community’s Regional Rights Resource Team (SPC RRRT), UNDP Pacific Centre, Pacific Youth Council and the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat (PIFS) will be convening a Youth and civil society dialogue to be held from the 23-27th of June in Nadi, Fiji.

SPC RRRT is pleased to invite one representative from Civil Society and one youth representative from each of the following Pacific Island Countries: Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Republic of Marshall Islands, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu

Download the conference announcement below for further details and the application form if you are interested to represent your country. Email us your completed form as soon as possible.

SPC_meeting_announcement_Regional_Youth_and_CSO_Dialogue_1.pdf

Friday 20 July 2012, Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), Brisbane, Australia –

Dame Carol Kidu, former Leader of the Opposition in Papua New Guinea stated that, "Pacific countries are fighting issues of commonality such as climate change and violence against women despite the diversity of culture and language in the region".

Dame Kidu's remarks opened the Regional Human Rights Consultation for Members of Parliament held in Brisbane this week.

Dame Kidu shared the challenges she encountered in implementing human rights approaches as a PNG parliamentarian and emphasised that legislative reform especially in human rights related issues demanded courage of the parliamentarians and sensitising of one's constituency of the relevant human rights issue.

Dame Kidu highlighted that, "globalisation poses a greater threat to the region than colonisation and therefore it is imperative that human rights standards are adhered to."

She relayed her experience as the former PNG Minister of Community Development in which she was instrumental in lobbying for the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child; adding that national ownership of such international treaties is vital.

Members of Parliament from the Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Niue, PNG, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu are being exposed to critical human rights issues facing the Pacific region such as: climate change, sexual and gender based violence, national and regional human rights commissions, HIV and inclusivity of persons with disabilities at the 4th Pacific Consultation on Advancing Legislative Reform in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

The consultation is aimed at providing an opportunity for Pacific Parliamentarians to gain further information on, and discuss current and critical human rights issues in their national parliaments.

The week long consultation ended with a mock parliament in which regional Parliamentarians raised and debated human rights issues.

The consultation is currently underway at the Park Regis North Quay Hotel in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia from 16 to 20 July 2012.

The annual consultation is facilitated by the SPC RRRT team in collaboration with the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat and in partnership with UN Women and the Asia Pacific Forum for National Human Rights Institutions.

The consultation is made possible thanks to the generous funding of AusAID.

For more information, contact Lionel Aingimea ([email protected])

Tuesday 11 March 2009, Secretariat of the Pacific Community, New York

Pacific laws on violence against women (VAW) are outdated and treat women with indifference despite the globally high rates of VAW in the Pacific region.

Pacific Island governments need to make a concerted effort to review this legislation so that laws can better protect women.

Secretariat of the Pacific Community/Regional Rights Resource Team (SPC/RRRT) Gender and Human Rights Advisor, Imrana Jalal, made the comments whilst addressing members of the Pacific Islands Forum who attended the 53rd United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) held recently in New York.

Pacific representatives from the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, as well as Australia and New Zealand attended the meeting.

Jalal told those Pacific government representatives that only a handful of Pacific Island countries and territories (PICTs) had made some progress.

Jalal said Fiji had addressed some elements of domestic violence in its family law but had not touched sexual violence or domestic violence in its criminal or civil codes. Despite being the first country in the region to ratify the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, Samoa had not passed any legislation addressing any area of women's rights, since ratification.

Jalal was at the UNCSW as chair of the high-level UN Expert Group on Best Practices in Violence against Women Legislation. The panel advises the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on best practices from around the globe in terms of laws which relate to violence against women (VAW).

She told the PICT government representatives that SPC/RRRT had won a substantial grant from the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) Trust Fund. SPC/RRRT had to compete with 1027 applicants worldwide for the grant.

The grant, worth USD 720,000 provides SPC/RRRT with some resources to work with PICT governments and non-government organisations to help reform laws which relate to VAW. SPC/RRRT was the only Pacific organisation to win one of the 28 grants available.

Jalal said the grant focused on addressing the issue of legislation specifically, and SPC/RRRT's effort is meant to build on the groundwork already laid by organisations such the Fiji Women's Crisis Centre (FWCC) Pacific Women's Network on VAW.

The UNIFEM Trust Fund Pacific project ties in with the expert group's findings on best practices globally. Jalal said the best VAW laws emanated from the developing world, not the developed world, citing Mexico, Albania and India as examples.

Jalal said that compared to global standards, Vanuatu's new domestic violence law is also 'pretty decent legislation', although it is far from perfect. She said there were no perfect laws in the arena of human relationships.

Jalal said that the goal of the SPC/RRRT UNIFEM Trust Fund project was 'changing laws protecting women and lobbying for legislative change in violence against women and family law in order to enhance protective legislation for women and girls in six PICTs'.

Initially, SPC/RRRT will begin the legislative reforms with the governments of Cook Islands, Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Samoa.

Jalal said that there was no need to re-invent the wheel as the UN Expert Group on Best Practices in VAW Legislation had come up with a compilation of best practices from around the globe which could be adapted to suit the Pacific context.

Whilst in New York Jalal made four presentations at various CSW panels as Chair of the UN Expert Group on Best Practices in VAW Legislation and also a half-hour video on VAW legislation for the UN's Division for the Advancement of Women (UNDAW). The video will be available on UNDAW's website shortly.

For more information, contact Sandra Bernklau, Programme Manager SPC/RRRT +(679) 3305 582 or email: [email protected]

Background: The Regional Rights Resource Team (RRRT), which is a programme of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), works with partners in nine focus countries (Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Samoa,Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Nauru and Vanuatu) to offer training and expert advice on the development of human rights advocacy, lobbying, mobilisation strategies and the drafting of national human rights legislation. The team provides human rights training, technical support, and policy and advocacy services tailored specifically for the Pacific region. Its mission is to seek a Pacific region that is respected for the quality of its governance, the sustainable management of its resources, the full observance of democratic values and for its defence and promotion of human rights.